Indy 500

Every year I try to get into the whlo Indy 500 excitement, I really do try, I really want to get excited but I just haven´t been able too.

First let me tell you about my motorsport fan background so you can understand.

As a kid I grew up on Spain and Mexico, both countries have no oval racing history whatsoever. Now, remember that F1 used to race in Mexico during the 80s, I was born in 1974, so as you can see my introduction to racing was a series with no ovals at all, all of the Mexican open wheel racing series had no ovals at all.

As you can guess I don´t like ovals that much, I grew up with road racing, I fall in love with road racing, to be honest I´m glad CC has no ovals this years and very glad IRL is adding more and more road courses.

Also take into consideration that in Spain and Mexico the biggest sport is soccer, in soccer you don´t score very often, but as a fan you live for those moments, because scoring is very hard, a goal is a special moment, it means someone made a GREAT play or osmeone screwed up (or a combination), when you love soccer high scoring games like basketball look very boring, too much scoring means no special or magic moments.

Road racing to me is like soccer, not many passes, but the few are either great passes full of technical ability by the drivers or a mistake or a combination of both, those passes are magic moments, special moments, but an oval is like basketball, too many passes, almost everyone gets to pass someone on an oval.

Is there any hope for me?

Great analogy Jose, I understand it completely, but come from the opposite side.

As you may recall, I am an American married to a Mexican girl. I never had an appreciation of futbol until 2002. My wife's brother came and spent the summer with us. He of course wanted to watch the World Cup, so I was getting up at 2:30 in the morning and watching games with him. Watching games with someone knowledgable really made me love the game and learn it, appreciate it's ebb and flow. I find that some things are like that, they have to be watched at a different level. For me, Baseball, Soccer, and Road Racing are sports you need a certain level of knowledge before you can truly appreciate it. It's different than the over the top entertainment level of Basketball, American Football, or Oval Racing.

That said, the Indianapolis 500 is the greatest race in the world, bar none. I come from Memphis, TN and Memphis is a sprint car town, producing such drivers as Sammy Swindell, Jeff Swindell, Ricky Hood, and Bobby Davis Jr. There wasn't much racing on tv in the late 70's, but my dad would watch it whenever it came on, and he'd taken me a few times to Riverside Speedway (a 1/4 mile dirt track just across the river in West Memphis, AR, (the place the Swindells and the Hoods et al got their start) It's been in continual operation from the 50's up until today.) I liked racing, but my dad got tickets to the 1981 Indy 500 and from then on, I loved it.

Have you ever been to the race? If you ever went there, I think you would know, you would understand. It's the crowd, the noise, the speed, the methanol, the tension in the air in the moments leading up to the race just dripping with history. The tension built up over being there a whole month, (and that's an important part), and of all the years that have gone before leading up to Now. I can feel it even through the television.

Is there hope for you? Sure, just go to the race with someone who knows and appreciates it.

I am not a racing elitist, I like it all. I used to think road racing was boring, but now I see it on a different level, and I'm sure you can learn to appreciate the nuances and flows of Oval racing too. :)

What makes Indy special is that it's the Granddaddy of all American Racing. The names on the Borg Warner Trophy are a who's who of open wheel racing. Many of the guys on that trophy went on to or came from great sucess in all forms of racing: F1, Stock cars, Endurance etc. Some have moved on to be competitive team owners.

The technical skill of which you speak is evident in every turn, getting the precise line through the turn as fast as the laws of physics will allow.

Go to a race: wander the paddock, feel the horsepower, take in the sights and sounds and you'll be hooked.

I have been to oval races DocF225, unfortunately never to the I500, I love wandering the paddock at road courses and oval races (walking trough the pits on road courses is still the second best activity I love doing at a course, watching practice in every turn is my favorite one).
Don´t get me wrong, I didn´t intend to imply that no technical skill is needed in an oval, driving a car that fast for almost all of the race with a wall at one of the ends requires not only skill but also a lot of courage (yes, it´s safer now to be a racer than 10, 20 and 30 years ago, but it´s still for brave men and women), but it is a lot more difficult to pass someone on a road course than on an oval, it´s the nature of road courses, passing is very hard.
Some people find road courses boring just because of that, passing is so hard you only get a few passes, others like me find that because it is so hard to do, and because you only get a few a lot more exciting, others find ovals very exciting because of all of the passing, almost every lap most of the drivers are either trying to pass or defend their position, others like me find them entertaining but without special moments.
WHat I´m trying to say is that I find oval races entertaining, almost every race is very entertaining, very hard to get a boring oval race, but also very difficult to get an outstanding oval race, road courses on the other side you get quite a few boring races, you get some good races, and you get a very few outstanding races, thos kind of races you will talk about for years, but as my grandfather used to say about bull fighting, you have to attend andwatch every one to get the outstanding one.
But then again, who knows what my tastes would be like if I was born in the US and my dad had took me to CART races instead of F1 races.

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Originally Posted by jarrambide

snip...Road racing to me is like soccer, not many passes, but the few are either great passes full of technical ability by the drivers or a mistake or a combination of both, those passes are magic moments, special moments, but an oval is like basketball, too many passes, almost everyone gets to pass someone on an oval.
Is there any hope for me?

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Except in the history of Indy there hasn't been alot of passes. Before IRL with low hp and high drag, drivers would wait for the right time, fuel load, tire wear, etc willing to pace themselves for 10-20 laps waiting for the right time to go, and experienced viewers could spot it developing.

The "500" is one of those events that can't be captured as well on television as if you were there. I live in Indianapolis. I've discovered that people who reside here tell their friends from out of town that "you hafta come just once" to experience it. To road-racing oriented fans, I expect that's a little like Le Mans. The culture and magnitude of it ARE different from other events.

The town is Speedway, Indiana. The Indiana quarter has an Indy car on it. If you get a card to the Speedway library, it has an Indy car on it. The town of Speedway's fire trucks have an array of flags painted on the sides. Many fans park at Speedway High School, home of the Speedway Sparkplugs. As you fly into the airport in Indy, from the right side of the plane in the glide path, you get a spectacular view of how big the Speedway is. Four holes of the Brickyard Crossing golf course are in the infield. Crawfordsville Road, leading to the Speedway, has a median decorated with "500" banners for two miles. IMS was named a National Historic Landmark in the U.S. many years ago.

It's different, in the world's largest seating facility.

Will have to judge again after attending the race then.

To people like Al Unser Jr., it was *the* career goal. Much bigger than any other win or championship. So it's like winning the World Cup, Super Bowl or Le Mans. You could see it in his face, hear it in his voice when he told the announcer "You just don't know what Indy means" after his first win. It's the last pass that matters - that's the special moment. It's not like any other oval race and different from any other premier race.

These days it's diluted, which I'm sure contributes to the difficulty in grasping its context. Even some of the winners don't seem to get it or appreciate it. If you saw top driver from several other series showing up with serious efforts each year, you'd quickly "get it".

When NASCAR first went there, there was a respectful effort to refer to their race as "The Brickyard". That has faded as you regularly hear the shorthand "Indy" in regards to their race there. It's devaluing the name.

I think the fact NASCAR is there has helped dilute the Indy 500 and its impact. Now there are three races there, and one is f1 and happens in its own bubble where most of America pays little attention to it. That said, NASCAR being there has taken away some of the lustre of the 500. Letting the biggest competitor for fans and attention show up and run a premier race on your biggest stage has done little for OW racing but put more money in Tony George's jeans so he can afford to lose money elsewhere.

I love the Indy 500, and I loved it a lot when people would leave other series to show up for a shot at it. I loved the testing results being on the radio and the speculation as people shopped for rides. I loved the drama of bubble day and how a really good team or driver could gamble on an earlier time making the field, and then be caught short by time trying to requalify once they were out of the 33. When Penske's super team was shut out, it gave a new meaning to drama.

All of that is now gone. Yes the IRL cars put on a good show, and yes, it still is a big deal to win it, but not what it was. You have some damned good drivers through politics not racing there. You have no more drama in qualfiying, and you don't have the diversity of cars and teams in the field no more. The cinderella story of the guy showing up with a stock block and being competitive is no longer possible. In short, all the things I loved about Indy are now part of history and no longer part of the reality.

I think the Indianapolis 500 is a great race, and is the biggest race in Open wheeled racing. As a one day event, I think it is right there with LeMans for an experience you have to be at to appreciate. That said, its star has fallen. I hope to go there and have a beer with IC and argue about the merits of all that has gone on, and see the race. I have watched on tv for years, and even up here in Canada, we used to get reports daily on the news on how testing was going every May. We haven't had that the last few years to the same extent.....

But why should NASCAR running there dilute the race?
Perhaps for Indiana residents that have now 2 (3 with F1) races they can attend, but I just don´t get it with TV fans, why would having other series run in the same venue dilute the race, I ask this because I have heard this many times from many open wheel fans, not just you guys.
But then again, I also don´t understand the one race bigger than the whole series concept which has been connected with the Indy 500 since USAC, I remember almost everyone preferes winning Indy than the championship in those days, to me that is just not right, to be a series champion you need to drive great for a whole year, to win one race you just nheed to have a great day and that´s it, perhaps that´s why I have troubles grasping Indy now that i think of it, to me it makes sense that every race is as important as the rest, and although tradition is important to me the biggest an dmost important part of a racing series is winning the championship.